What does the future of HIV funding look like in the next fiscal year? The short answer is that it’s difficult to tell at this early stage, but it doesn’t look good. With the Trump administration reportedly planning to make $800 billion in cuts to entitlement programs like Medicaid, HIV advocates need to prepare for a long battle over the FY18 budget.

As was expected, Trump's first formal budget proposal was heavy on military spending and light on pretty much everything else. Among the hardest hit was Department of Health and Human Services, which stands to lose approximately 20 percent of its annual budget under Trump's plan. While Trump's budget did mention the Ryan White program as a priority, it provided no specifics with regards to its funding.

While most of the country was sleeping, the Senate voted in favor of a budget resolution that officially starts the countdown clock to at least a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act. However, while there is a little more certainty regarding repeal of the ACA after Thursday morning's vote, Senate Republicans still have no concrete plan for what to replace it with or how to protect the 29 million Americans who stand to lose their insurance in its absence.